Monday, September 21st - Salou, Spain

I was up early today, had my bowl of cereal and went over to talk to the manager in office here in the complex at 8 a.m. when he started work.  The girls in reception thought the manager would know where the closest or best courier place might be.  Well, he was not coming in today for some reason so that was a wasted thought.  However, the girl who was on duty did some digging on her own because she was sure you could send international couriers from Salou.  I was prepared to catch the bus to Tarragona or the train to Barcelona if needed but very interested in a closer alternative if one was available.  I told her I knew I could go to Mail Boxes Etc. in Tarragona to send it so she immediately questioned why I couldn't go to the one in Salou.  My thoughts exactly but everyone else I asked said no, you have to go to Tarragona.  So she phoned them and sure enough they said they could do it.

She gave me instructions on how to get there and it was pretty easy - just one left turn at the first street and one right turn at the end of that street, cross the railroad tracks and keep going.  She estimated a 15 minute walk so I guessed at probably 30 minutes but in fact it was only about 20 minutes so I was pleased.  I even passed a bank machine on my way and got some more euros, which was a good thing since they would not accept credit cards.

I found their process rather confusing because I am more familiar with FedEx forms - and things in English.  And I was not even filling out a UPS form but rather a Mail Boxes Etc. form.  I also wanted something to fill out for customs purposes but that also was not available.  They just kept assuring me that they do this kind of delivery all the time and there would be no problem, so I filled out the one form, put the documents in the envelope and said adios to it (appropriate for Spain, I thought).  Now I just have to hope it arrives okay and eventually gets back to me in a couple weeks time.

On the way back I stopped and picked up some more groceries.  It was much easier today as the place was less crowded and no one was in a rush like the other night.   I'm happy to say that again today I ate only my own food.  I figure even if I have to waste some things (like salt and pepper that I may not use up before I leave) it will still save me money to not be eating every meal in a restaurant - even if some of them are really cheap.

I spent from about 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. doing some blogging, organizing things around the apartment, etc. and then I went down to the beach to read until about 7:30.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon/evening.  I came back to the apartment and having eaten my pasta dinner I am now sitting on my balcony working on blogs again.  At this rate I may actually get caught up on at least the Spain/Portugal tour blogs before I leave here.  But having been working on them I am now behind on the current ones so I'll have to get caught up on them too.  If my days are no busier than this one, that should not take too long!

Oh, and I got an e-mail from UPS giving me my tracking number and telling me my package was in Barcelona by 5 p.m. today so it's definitely in the hands of UPS and on its way with an expected delivery date of Thursday.  Yippee!